Brothers
by Fallen Ark Angel
Summary: Siblings are a great thing to have. You just gotta get used to them first. Or, when you have Laxus for a father, have your dad threaten to kill them if you don't love them. That always works too. - One-shot, set in Parenthood universe.


Brothers

From the first moment he found out about it, Nathan was more than excited about Mirajane's pregnancy. He was down right ecstatic. As Laxus had explained it, he was going to have a baby brother and it was going to be, like, twenty times as awesome as having a cousin.

He and his brother would share a room and stay up all night talking, then they'd play with the dog and learn magic together. Not to mention they'd spend practically every day together, because they would love one another and Nate would finally have someone to share his love of toy cars with. It was going to be awesome.

The only problem though was that his little brother didn't seem to wanna come out any time soon.

"How come?" Nathan asked Mirajane nearly every day when she would giggle and tell him once more that no, it wasn't the day she was going to have the baby.

"Because, sweetie," she'd tell him as she smoothed back his blond locks. "The baby's still growing."

Apparently, it did that in Mira's tummy. As if the boy needed another reason to become obsessed with her.

He was constantly looking over at it or asking Mira if it was hurting. Honestly, he was just very concerned for the poor baby, having to live in there. It didn't seem fair. Not when Nate had a perfectly good room to share with him, if he'd ever come outta there.

Although, Nathan would admit, if he had to live inside a person, he'd definitely choose Mirajane. But that was just because every other person sucked in comparison to her. Even Laxus.

Who, for the record, wasn't nearly as thrilled by the new baby.

Not that he wasn't happy, because he was. And it wasn't like he didn't want another kid, because he did. It was just…a lot more to take in than he was expecting. Nate had been given to him when the boy was already a toddler, so he didn't have to deal with the pregnancy or any of those early infant years that he was sure were going got be nightmarish. He was having a demonic spawn with the she-devil. They'd probably be hell on earth.

Still, he found himself putting most of his efforts into just keeping Mira happy. It wasn't hard, most of the time. So long as she wasn't in one of her moods. So long as Nate was around and happy (which he was if he had ice cream, toy cars, or his doggy) as well as Laxus gave her some jewels to buy the baby stuff, she was fine.

He mostly just had to make sure she was eating. She didn't do much of that without the baby and, well, Laxus didn't want some scrawny thing crawling out of her. He wanted a strong baby. A healthy baby. And if that meant cooking more (she was more likely to eat it if she thought he would get his feelings hurt by her not at least trying some of his food), then he'd cook more.

Nate wasn't too happy with though. Laxus couldn't even make grilled cheese the way he liked. Only Mira could. And forbid that it was Laxus that made his pancakes in the morning. They were always too flat. Mira's were fluffy. And had chocolate in them. He liked chocolate.

He also Mirajane. A lot. She was his mommy. As far as he knew.

"Not today," Nate tried frequently, "then tomorrow?"

"No, Nate," Mira would say. "And you really won't like the baby as much as you think you will. Trust me."

Oh, he did. Just not on that. The baby was going to be his little brother and he was going to love him.

Duh.

It got kinda weird though, when Mira's stomach got bigger. Mainly because she got weirder. Sometimes she'd cry or yell or be mad. Not at him. Never at him. Mostly at Laxus. Which he deserved. For being Laxus. But sometimes, she'd yell at the doggy too! And Nate didn't like that.

He also didn't like when he found out just what it meant to share a room.

"Here?" he asked as Laxus, after spending a long time putting it together, moved a crib into his bedroom. "Daddy, no. Toys."

"Your toys will just have to move, Nate," he said with a shrug. "Just like I told you."

"No."

"Nathan, we're all having to adjust, okay? For the baby."

But… Was that what it meant to share your room? To give up part of it to the baby? …He had made a horrible mistake. Sharing his toy cars meant then…no…no! The baby was going to take his toy cars! And he'd promised to share his books and his doggy and…

"Not share Mira with baby," he began to tell them all frequently. No way. Who did this baby think he was anyways? Just popping out of Mirajane's tummy like he owned the place or something. And he didn't. Fine, Nate could give up part of his room, he could give up some of his toys and books, and maybe the baby could have a tiny part of the dog (he was thinking the tail), but not Mommy. Not Mirajane. He loved her.

"Baby can have Lisanna," he told them all frequently, which everyone thought was cute. Except, of course, Lisanna. But was okay. Because he didn't like her. He loved her. A lot. But he didn't like her.

Laxus picked up on the little boy's discomforts easily. Mainly because he was having the same ones. Mirajane already gave up half of their time together to Nate, which Laxus put up with because, fine, without the boy he wouldn't even have the demon, whatever, but even more time was going to go to a completely separate kid? He felt like the walls were closing in on him.

Still though, with a few months until Mira's due date, Laxus tried his hardest to reiterate all the great things about the baby. The ones that Nathan had been so pumped about before.

"I mean yeah, Nate, you're gonna have to give a little," he told his son frequently, "but you're gonna get a lot in return. It's like how I got you and Mirajane. I gave up a lot. _A lot_. And I still am. But all that I got in return is-"

"No share Mira."

"Nathan, buddy-"

"No. Mira is my mommy." And she was. She promised. "Only."

"That's not true, buddy. She's gonna be the new baby's mother too. And she's going to love him-"

"No!"

"Yes." Then Laxus would pat him on the head. "It's just the way that things are. Remember how happy you were before? To share with your baby brother?"

That was before. Way before. Had they explained to him exactly what it meant to share back then, maybe they wouldn't be in the mess they were in now.

Mira had a very different approach though.

"You know, Nathan," she'd say as they laid around in bed. That was one of the better things about her being pregnant. Mirajane was home more and loved to take naps. Lots and lots naps. And, before, he'd snuggle up with her and make faces at her stomach, trying to entertain the baby in there. Now though, he just nuzzled up against her and tried to persuade her into not having the baby. Just poop him out instead and flush him down the toilet.

Nate really liked that idea.

"I'm always going to love you," Mirajane told him. "And the new baby's not going to take away from that."

He wasn't falling for it. Not even for a moment.

"My room," he said, pointing across the hall to where it was. "Daddy says to share. I shared. Now I don't got all of my room. No share you."

"You have quite the grasp on comprehension, but not much on proper sentences, huh?"

He just stared at her. "My mommy."

"I'll always be your mother, Nathan. No matter what." And, for some reason, whenever she said that, she'd look all serious and stuff. As if there was a chance that, somehow, she would ever stop being it. Ha. He didn't believe that for a minute. "But I'm going to be someone else's now too."

"No."

"Yes." Then she kissed his head. "Do you want me to be happy?"

"Mmmm…yes."

"Well, I want a baby. And me and Laxus are having one. That doesn't mean that it's going to replace you or that you're not important to me. Because you are. You were our first baby. And you always will be."

"Mmmm…no."

"Yes." And, for some reason, Mirajane seemed much more final than Laxus ever did. Much more to be feared, even though she hardly even ever raised her voice at him. "And you're just going to have to get over that."

It was around then that the question drifted from wanting to know if his brother was arriving that day and to the exact opposite.

"Not today," he'd tell Mirajane's stomach when he first got up that morning, as if an order. "Not tomorrow."

Until, one day, he woke up and said that only to be proven wrong. The baby did come. And…well…he got a brother at least.

He'd heard Mirajane and Laxus argue over names a lot and mostly ignored them. He didn't know what they were doing. He didn't really understand that you had to name a baby. He thought that it was just born with one. That he'd always been Nathan. Always.

Then again, he thought that he was like his brother and had come out of Mira's tummy too and not some random woman that he didn't even remember ever existing that Laxus couldn't even remember what looked like and never gave a damn about to begin with. So really, what did he know?

He got stuck with stupid Lisanna and Bickslow the day that the baby was born. They took him out to do all sorts of fun things though, to take his mind off it. There was a carnival in town and Nate went to go get his face painted and look all sorts of animals. Not to mention he got to watch Bickslow ride all these cool looking rides that he was too young for.

"I swear," Lisanna would complain as she watched her boyfriend while waiting with Nathan for him to finish. "He's, like, twelve."

Bickslow also won Nathan all sorts of prizes from the game booths. After about his fifth time in a row of knocking the bottles over at one booth, Lisanna was a tad suspicious.

"How did you do that?" she asked as Nathan trailed behind, dragging a humongous stuffed dragon along with him. It was bigger than him, even. "Bicks?"

"Easy," he said with a shrug. "Shifted the babies into the milk bottles and made them drop to the ground."

"Bickslow, that's cheating."

"Yeah, and? The booth people cheat too. I'm just better at it." Then he grinned. "What's next, Nate? Huh? Find something you want and I'll get it for you."

He must have spent the whole day up at the carnival with Bickslow and Lisanna. He even forgot about Mira for a bit, which was supposed to be the point.

When they dropped him off at Elfman and Evergreen's house though to spend the night, he was less than amused.

"No," he told Ever with a shake of his head as she tried to get him to settle down and sleep in Lisanna's old bedroom. It had been Mira's house originally, but she'd passed it on to Elfman when she and Laxus forged their life together. "I go home. See Mommy. And doggy."

"No, Nathan," Evergreen sighed, stroking his hair gently. "You're not going to. You're gonna spend the next few days with us, okay? Mira and Laxus are trying to get everything settled with the new baby. You can go home and visit soon, alright?"

Visit? With his own mother? What?

He cried all night. Which, of course, made Elfman and Evergreen's own one year old son wail along with him. But what could they do? They'd promised to watch the boy, after all. And no one rightly trusted Bickslow and Lisanna to actually keep him the whole night.

Err, well, they trusted Lisanna. But Bickslow on the other hand… And Freed still lived alone, in a tiny apartment, and, while he'd do anything for Laxus, his misadventures in even babysitting the boy had never gone well. An overnight stay was not on his agenda. At all.

Eventually, Nathan just buried his head in his new stuffed dragon and fell asleep, hoping things would be better in the morning.

And they were. Before breakfast even, Laxus came to rescue him.

Maybe the man was good for some things.

"Nathan," he scolded when he saw him. "Were you being bad?"

"No." And he wasn't. He just wanted Mirajane. Why did they all act like that was some horrible atrocity? He loved his mommy. A lot. Shouldn't it be that way? "I wasn't."

"And where did you get all these new toys? Damn it, Bickslow."

"Mira's at home?"

"No, buddy," Laxus told him with a shake of his head. "She's at the hospital. It's where you go after you have babies."

"Ever said you weren't comin' back for days."

"We weren't going to," he told him. "I mean, we thought that you would be fine, but apparently not."

"I need Mira."

"I know. We were silly to think otherwise."

But Mira was fine. And she fretted over him like he wanted. Even gave a kiss to the fake owie that he said he had on his knee from where Elfman and Evergreen were just so horrible to him and threw him down in bed without even telling him goodnight. Laxus rolled his eyes at that, but Mirajane always played along when he was dramatic.

And he got to look at his new brother too. He was all tiny and nasty looking. Not at all like how Nathan was envisioning. Huh.

Whatever. He was there then and Nate was just going to have to figure ways around him. That was all.

"Go home now?" he asked Mirajane who just grinned and kissed his head as they said goodbye.

"You're gonna go back to Elfman and Evergreen's. I'll be there to get you soon."

He didn't wanna. But he was all out of tears. It seemed the older he was getting, the harder it was to throw a tantrum on command. Oh the woes of aging.

The next day was horrible, but eventually he go to go back home. That wasn't a walk in the park either though.

His doggy was happy to see him and he was glad to be able to introduce his new toys from the carnival to his others, but there was one problem.

He had been promised a baby brother that would play with him. Would talk with him. Would share all of his life struggles. Instead all he got was a poopy, nasty, attention stealing baby that cried constantly and ruined his life.

Worst of all, Mirajane was either up dealing with this new monster or sleeping. That was it! No special story time, no hugs and snuggles, and definitely no going out to play. It was true. Mira wasn't his mommy anymore.

He had one course of action, of course, to this development and used it often.

"Nathan," Laxus would sigh. "You're getting too old for this."

He would only cry though and throw his toys and refuse to eat and try his hardest to get Mira to understand. He was enough of a baby for her, wasn't he?

She tried to help him through his problems, but he didn't want help. He didn't want her to explain how the baby was just learning to live in the world and he was going to have to adjust some. That they all were. He didn't want her to kiss his head and tell him that she wanted him to be a big boy. That she missed her big boy. Because wasn't fair. Clearly Mirajane wanted a baby. If someone had to be that baby, he wanted it to be him. Let the new kid be the big boy.

Laxus though wasn't as nurturing about it. He'd never had siblings, so he didn't get it. Not at all. He had, however, lost his mother and later his father and would have loved to have someone to share that turmoil with. In his mind, Nathan was just being a brat.

"Laxus," Mira scolded one day when he sent Nathan to his room after throwing a fit that Mirajane, once again, wouldn't be making his breakfast. "You can't-"

"I made him damn fine pancakes, Mirajane. And he tossed them on the ground. I'm done. I am more than done. He's not a baby. He's-"

"It's not like he wanted this," she reminded him. "At all. We wanted a baby. We changed up his world. Us. Not him."

Still, Laxus and Nathan seemed at odds then. Not that that was so different from usual, but now the stakes were higher. Laxus, honestly, just didn't want the boy to hurt the new baby, which once or twice he'd threatened to do. He was that angry, it seemed, by the new child's appearance.

Mira was much more patient though. As always. And though the baby had her exhausted most of the time, she tried a few times to explain things to him.

"When I was little," she told him once, "my mom and dad had your Uncle Elf and Lisanna. Did you know that?"

It was one of the rare times that he got to be alone with her anymore, so he would understand anything and everything she said. Snuggling up close to her, he just nodded.

"And you know that I love Elfman and Lisanna. Don't you?"

"Yeah."

"I had to learn to give up time to both of them too," she told him. "And I didn't have my parents for much longer after that."

"Miss 'em?" She spoke about them sometimes and it made him feel kinda sorry for her. He couldn't imagine life without her being there, after all.

"Mmmhmm. But I'm so glad that they left me Lisanna and Elfman before they went. Because, even though I don't have them anymore, I'll always have my brother and sister."

That meant nothing Nathan, but it did mean something to someone. Namely Laxus, who had been in the bathroom at that time, shaving. Upon hearing with Mirajane said, he devised a plan to get the whole thing resolved once and for all.

He put his plan into action one day when Mirajane took the baby out, early in the morning. He was going to a doctor's appointment, to get his shots and stuff, while Laxus was staying home with Nate. Perfect.

"Where's Mira?" was Nathan's first question when his father came to awaken him. Then, glancing over at the crib, he asked, "With the baby?"

"It's horrible, Nate," Laxus told him, all solemn and stuff.

'Wha'?"

"You know how you don't like the new baby?"

"Yeah."

"Well," the man said slowly, trying to keep his tone dark. "'cause you wished it so much, he went away."

"Back inside Mira?"

Shaking his head, Laxus said, "He died, Nate."

"Died?"

"Remember that time that we were out and someone accidentally ran over that kitten? And it wasn't alive anymore?"

"Yeah." He hadn't liked that. At all. He cried for a long time. It was so sad.

"That's the same thing."

Blinking, Nathan pushed out of bed to go over to the crib and peer in through the bars. "He's dead?"

"Uh-huh. And Mira too."

"What?"

Laxus just nodded down at him. "Horrible, huh? It's just me and you now. And the dog, but-"

Then the crying started. It was bad too. Laxus hadn't even gotten to the good part of the story yet! Where he explained to Nathan that Mira and the baby would come back if he would just love them. That they weren't really dead. And then they could all live happily-

"Laxus, I forgot his diaper ba- What's going on?"

And Mira was home. As the boy was screaming bloody murder. Oh no.

"Why he's crying like this?" Mira was in the room immediately, the dog, who'd been getting a drink in the kitchen, coming to investigate as well.

But Nate didn't care about his doggy. Not then. He just rushed over to Mirajane, holding onto her tightly.

"Don't die! Mommy!"

"What?" She still had the other baby in his little carrier, which Laxus went to go take. Looks like the doctor's appointment was off. "Nathan-"

"Laxus said," he tried to get out, but he was sobbing too hard. "Mira!"

"I'm here. What did he tell you?" She was looking at her husband then though who just smiled at her.

"Funny story," Laxus said as he went to get the baby out of his carrier before putting him back in his crib. Nate's crying had set him off too, but Laxus couldn't deal with that for the time being. "See, I thought that if I told him that the two of you were dead and could only come back if he loved the baby, then-"

"Get out."

"Mira-"

"No. Leave. Now."

With that smoldering gaze she was giving him? Believe him, he was.

It took forever to get Nathan calmed down again. He just kept hiccupping and holding onto her, fearful of ever letting go. Laxus had done some horrible things, but his little ploy took the cake. How was she ever supposed to leave the house again?

When Nathan did get all settled again, Mirajane went to work on calming down the new baby too, though Nate never left her side. He just held onto her leg and moaned.

"I love baby, Mommy. Don't die," he pleaded. "Please."

"Nathan, Laxus wasn't serious. Honest. Just calm down. I'll be with you in a second."

"Love brother," he told her. "Promise."

"I know you do. I never thought that you didn't."

Four days. Mirajane kicked Laxus out for four days. He was pretty miserable. Since he was crashing on Bickslow's couch, Lisanna mediated between the two. Mostly she just told him how the baby and Nate were doing. And that Mirajane had never thought of him in a worse way than she did then.

She really did. That was a horrible thing to do. It wasn't funny or cute. At all.

Eventually though, she needed him, if only because taking care of the two boys alone wasn't easy. Though, she would have to admit, Nathan's daily tantrums hadn't appeared. She knew that was only because he was fearful that she would die if they did. And when she remembered that, it made her hate Laxus all the more.

"You were bad," Nathan told him when he got back home. "Laxus."

"I know."

"Mira didn't die! You lied!"

"Yeah, Nate, I know."

"Mommy's mad at you. Because you're bad."

"Look, brat, I get it, alright? Now knock it off."

Still though, Nathan went to hug his father as he came into the apartment. Even if he was a horrible liar, he was still daddy. They were best buds!

Mira wasn't as quick to forgive. Not that he was expecting her to be. You didn't mess with Mirajane's babies. They were on that unimaginable level that even outranked her siblings. Laxus was lucky that he left the apartment with his life.

"Where's your mom?" Laxus asked after Nathan let him go. "Huh?"

"Baby go potty. Stinky."

Right. So she was changing him.

Nathan led Laxus to the boys' shared bedroom where Mira was doing that. Nathan, shockingly enough, didn't fall to the floor and scream about how he wanted her and to get away from that nasty baby. Instead, he rushed to Mira's side.

"He's not sick? Or dyin'?"

"No, Nathan," she said as she sent a glare over her shoulder at her husband. He just gave her a sheepish grin. "He's fine."

"Good." Wrapping his arms around Mirajane, Nathan nuzzled against the woman. "I love my brother."

He said that frequently. Anything to keep Mira from leaving him.

"I know, baby."

"Hey, uh, demon," Laxus greeted as he came into the room. "I missed-"

"The trash needs to go out," Mira said simply. "And dinner needs to be cooked. The dog needs to go for a walk and Nathan needs a bath."

"Uh-"

"Get to it, Laxus. Now. All of it. Quickly."

Right. So he was still on punishment. Sigh. You tell one kid one time that his mother's dead and it's all his fault and suddenly you're a bad person.

One thing that caught his attention though was that, after Nathan's bath, he didn't whine about wanting to sleep with Mirajane. He just went right to his room and got a book off the shelf.

"What are you doing, Nate?" the man asked as, instead of bringing him the book, Nathan went to sit beside the baby's crib.

"Gonna read to baby," he told him simply. "Stupid Laxus."

"Hey!"

Still, Nathan just moved to open the book and start. Mirajane worked hard with him on reading, but, when she wasn't around, he mostly just looked at the pictures and made it all up as he went along. It was more fun that way.

"Mira," Laxus called out as he left the room to go find her. She was in the kitchen, doing the dishes.

"You're lucky I'm not making you do these. You really-"

"The boy's doing something weird," he told her. "He's…reading to the baby and I think it might be some sort of cult ritual or something and-"

"Oh, Laxus, shut up. I'm not in the mood."

"No, I'm serious. About the reading to the baby, I mean. He's-"

"I know," she said, not even glancing back at him. "I told him the night that you left that I'm not going anywhere, but that it would make me happier if he did things for the baby. And you have him so freaked that if he doesn't do every little thing I ask that I'll disappear on him. So he reads the baby to sleep at night. I mean, he's already asleep, but Nate doesn't know that."

And he didn't. He thought that his baby brother stayed up and waited for him to read to him, just so that he could listen. If being nice to the baby kept Mirajane alive, he could do it. He could fake it.

"Night-night, baby." When he finished with the story, Nathan went to put it back on his bookshelf before going to stare at the baby though the bars of the crib. "I love you, Pike."

Then he rushed over to his bed because Mirajane liked it better when he went to bed on time and, well, if her life depended on it, he could do it without a fuss.

He was trying to go to sleep when she came into the room to kiss him goodnight and bring the dog in there to sleep in the middle of the floor. He had two little master's to protect now, after all.

"Night, Nate." She snuggled him some too. Laxus was with her, but Nathan just stuck his tongue out at the man, who gave him a glare in return. "I'll see you in the morning."

"Don't die, Mommy."

"Baby, I'm not going to. I promise. Laxus, tell him."

"Nate," he said, moving to pat the boy on the head. "Sometimes I make bad calls. Like when I told you that. I just wanted you to love your brother as much as we love him. We're all a family. And he's not going anywhere. Ever. It's your job to look out for him, alright? So stop being so mean to him and stop trying to get us to take him back. We didn't take you back and we're never going to. He's no different. You're not different. You're both our boys and…we love you, okay?"

Then Laxus kissed his head which yucky because it was Laxus' spit instead of Mommy's spit. Bleh! And Mirajane gave him a few more snuggles before they left him alone for the night, both going to check on Pike once more, knowing he'd be up again in an hour or so.

"So, demon, what-"

"What are you doing?" Mira asked as Laxus followed her into the bedroom.

"What does it look I'm doing? I'm-"

"Take a pillow and a blanket and then get out."

"What? Mira-"

"You told my baby that I was dead, Laxus." She went to shove a pillow at him. "Go sleep on the couch."

"Fine," he growled, turning to walk away. "But only because I want to!"

"You're the one that's getting up with Pike tonight if he whines. You hear me?"

Stupid demon and her stupid rules. What? Laxus wasn't allowed to make mistakes anymore?

The baby needed his diaper changed not soon after that and, when Laxus got him back asleep, he didn't realize that he left the boys' door open when he left the room. Or that he had woken Nathan up. Not until the boy appeared in the living room with him.

"What are you doing, Daddy?"

"I'm sleeping, brat. What's it look like?"

Nathan just rushed over to the couch with him and crawled on top of him. "Me too."

"No, Nate. You have your own bed. What do you think you're doing?"

"I'm sleepin, Daddy," he said, snuggling up to him. "What's it look like?"

With a sigh, Laxus just brushed a kiss against his similar locks before closing his own eyes.

Stupid brat. Didn't he realize how lucky he was to have a mother, father, and brother? Not to mention all of his aunts and uncles? Stupid little brat.

"I love you, Nate." He kissed him again. "I-"

"Stop it!" Nathan shoved his head away. "Nasty."

"You're nasty!"

"You're-"

"Laxus, what are you doing?"

Suddenly, the light was on in the living room and a very annoyed demon was standing there.

"I told you to tend to the baby," she said. "Not wake up Nathan."

"Mommy." Screw Laxus. Mira was up.

"Ow, brat," he grumbled as the boys knees dug into his gut as he climbed down. "Watch it."

"Go back to bed, Nathan," Mirajane said as he came to toss his arms around her. "Laxus is on punishment. He-"

"No, Mommy. That's not fair. Laxus is bad, but he's not that bad."

"Nathan-"

"I wan' sleep with Laxus. I love him." Hugging her, he said, "Love him lots."

With a roll of her eyes as she heard the baby start up from the other room, she said, "Both of you go get in bed. I'll be there in a minute. And be quiet about it. Pike won't stay asleep if you don't both stop making so much noise."

In his bedroom, Laxus frowned as Nathan snuggled up in his spot.

"Scoot over, brat."

"No. Laxus sleep on floor. Like the dog."

"Hey!"

He'd already saved the man from the wrath of Mirajane. How much more could he possibly want? Huh?

But eventually they got it all worked out. Beside, Nathan really liked sleeping in the middle of the bed anyhow, closer to Mirajane, so that they could snuggle. He loved his mommy the best.

And when she joined them in the bedroom, he was mostly asleep. She just brushed a kiss against his head and leaned over him too so that she could give Laxus one before falling quickly to sleep. The new baby made Mira tired.

When he started up again, Pike, Laxus got up to deal with him and Nathan followed. It was hard to sleep through his wailing anyways.

"C'mere, Nate," Laxus sighed as, after getting the baby settled again, he went to sit on the edge of Nathan's bed. The boy quickly claimed his spot in it, staring down at his brother while he was at it. "Look at him. Huh? You can hate this? Look how perfect he is. Look- Gentle."

But he was being gentle already as he reached out to touch the baby's tummy. It was soft. And his little onesie was too. He was kinda like a baby kitten. Kinda. Just more annoying and a lot less fun.

"I didn't do this right before, so I'm gonna do it now," Laxus said as Nate just kept staring down at Pike, the baby drifting off once more. "He's your brother. And you might now always like him, you don't have to. You won't always love him, there's no way to. But you're always going to be his brother. No matter what anyone says. You're both my boys, alright? And long after I'm gone, you're both going to take care of one another. Because that's the beauty of it, Nate. Sure, right now he's the weak one and you gotta watch out for him, but there'll come a day when you need him to pay you back for that. And he will.

"Because he's your baby brother. And he's going to love you. Unconditionally. He's going to look up to you. And sure, sometimes he'll steal your toys. Or your books. And, yeah, some of Mira's affection from time to time, but one day he'll be all you have. And you're gonna be so lucky for that. You're gonna thank me and Mirajane for giving you him. Just trust me on that, alright? As horrible as it'll be to be around him sometimes, it'll always be better than being alone."

Then Laxus put the baby back in his crib and, for real that time, settled Nathan down, who just laid on his side, staring over at his brother.

He still wasn't sure about the whole sharing toys and books and things. And he definitely wasn't keen on the sharing Mirajane stuff, but… Maybe he'd give Pike a chance. He had to give carrots a chance once too and those were great. So he'd just see how it went. If it turned out the way Laxus said it would then he figured he'd be pretty okay.


End file.
